slcmommy5

I am 7 days post op and was sleeved by Dr Alvarez @ Endobariatric.com. I'm doing great. I highly recommend him and especially in your circumstance. He has experience sleeving young patients, he even sleeved his own niece at a very young age (not sure exactly how young but certainly younger than 13). Good luck!

I used Dr Ponce de leon and I am more than happy to refer you,
That comment of some so called surgeon in Mexico is 100% unasked for. The surgeons there are a hell of a lot better than any doctor here in the states. I told my husband that I would consider him, as he is a general surgeon as well, to treat our kids first before any so called doctor in the states.
So that poster canl stfu.
I say go for it. I paid$5500 and a cheap plane ticket. And my dear this was the easiest thing I have ever done for myself. Your kids will do great. Keep me posted!!!

Thank you for all of your responses. The first thing I need to say is that I would never consider surgery unless I had exhausted all other avenues for weight loss including medical, emotional, physical, psychological. We have reached a point where I feel like this is our last and only option. Some may say I'm unnecessarily risking the life of my daughter, but I feel like if we don't do the surgery I'm risking her life as well. She has just developed diabetes, she went from being the happiest little girl to a girl who is depressed and cries every day because of her weight. She has been bullied, tormented, and teased every school day since she was 7 years old. Of all 5 of my children she has been the one who ate veggies and fruits, she was also my most active yet she has continued to gain about 2 pds a month for the last 6 years. We have had her thyroid checked, multiple labs and nothing explains what is going on. The only thing that explains it is that she says she's hungry all the time 24/7. So even though she knows what to eat, what not to eat etc, it doesn't help if you are always hungry. You just end up being cranky and angry at having to limit portion sizes when your body is telling you your hungry. For all of you who have had surgery or are considering it, imagine how hard it is for you now as an adult, can you even imagine the torment of being obese as a teenager? It's hell. Kids are cruel and it's not right that she should have to endure comments day after day. I got the sleeve 8 mths ago, it has changed my life. She sees this, she has seen what it has done for me including the fact that I am happy and healthy now. I was hungry all the time, and now I'm not, I have to remind myself to eat. All I want as her mother is for her to be happy. And if she continues down the path she's on, I may not have her for much longer. She is in a place where she doesn't even leave the house. She has become a different person .If things don't change I can see not only physical dangers in her future but emotional and psychological damage as well. I want her to live a life where she can make friends based on her personality, not on her physical appearance, where she can focus on the normal teenage stuff and not about her diet. She just turned 13 and is 200 pds.
As far as Mexico goes I'm still uncertian. The reason I posted this was because I was curious how many people would actually recommend a doctor from Mexico. It seems interesting to me that so many people will"risk" their own lives going there but not willing to recommend one for a 13 year old. Why is it different for an adult vs. a child? If you couldn't lose the weight as an adult what gives you the right to judge a teen who can't do it? It's interesting how hypocritical some people have been. I have in no way jumped to this decision. We have been praying and researching it for months. We've exhausted everything we have to help her and nothing has worked. Of course I would do everything in my power to see a U.S. Doctor but when you have 5 kids and make $30K a year it's quiet impossible to fork out 20K for the surgery. 8K will not be easy as it is. She has seen me go through the surgery, she knows what it entails but if anything I think the longer you are overweight, the longer you do the yo-yo dieting the harder it is to start thinking differently. If she does this now it will be easier to develop healthy eating habits and healthy emotions in regards to food. Not only that the fact that it wont be painful for her to exercise will be huge. She loves to exercise but right now it's extremely painful and embarrassing for her.
I appreciate everyone's comments, but I would politely ask that you look at yourselves and realize how hard it has been as an adult and ask yourselves just how much harder it would be if you were a teen. I love my daughter but I want her around and I want her to be happy. If I dont do the surgery she may not be around much longer and she certianly will not be happy.

So I just thought I'd post before and after pic of my face. I couldn't bare to take a before pic of my full body. Anyway, I'm 10 days post op and have lost 20 pounds. I'm not complaining by any means but just hope I'm doing everything right. I spent a week in the hospital for several complications that arose because of some unknown preexisting conditions and also because my lungs basically stop working after anasthesia. Anyway I had broth 3 times a day for the first 7 days then introduced cottage cheese and cream of chicken with tuna, the next three days..

You can really tell a difference. You were beautiful before and even more beautiful now! Congratulations.

So I'm still in the hospital it's been 7 days. First I want to say I picked a great surgeon I think if I had gone to anyone else I'd be a lot worse and many be even dead. Basically,when my Dr. went in he found that I had a bleeding spleen and a large liver with a lot of scarring tissue on it from my lap band. Afterward It was really hard for me to wake up and come around because my lungs apparently don't do well going under anesthesia. My heart rate stayed around 140 and would go up to 165. My heart rate in combination with my lung issues made it very hard for me to heal properly and get better. I think my doctor was surprised with everything that was going on because I had a low BMI and really had no obvious issues except that I had blots clots in my lungs previously. He did a lot Of CAT scans to make sure that I wasn't bleeding or leaking anywhere and also to make sure that I hadnt developed blood clots. A cardiologist then came in and did an EKG and found that my heart rate was extremely fast and had an abnormal rhythm. So basically the things that were causing me problems were things that I already had and no one knew anything about. I left the hospital on the fourth day but had to get readmitted the next day because I developed pneumonia. Even though this is been a long hard process I'm glad I did it and have hope that things will work out. My weight loss went from 217 on day of surgery to 200 6 days later.

I'm going into surgery in about 20 min...totally freaked out and just trying not to think about it. Had the band 2008, removed in 2011. My weight is 217, bmi 36. One thing I didn't have to do was a pre-op diet which was really nice as that would have been just one more thing to worry about. Hopefully I'll be back on here tomorrow saying everything went great! Good luck!

I'm going into surgery in about 20 min...totally freaked out and just trying not to think about it. Had the band 2008, removed in 2011. My weight is 217, bmi 36. One thing I didn't have to do was a pre-op diet which was really nice as that would have been just one more thing to worry about. Hopefully I'll be back on here tomorrow saying everything went great! Good luck!

I'm going into surgery in about 20 min...totally freaked out and just trying not to think about it. Had the band 2008, removed in 2011. My weight is 217, bmi 36. One thing I didn't have to do was a pre-op diet which was really nice as that would have been just one more thing to worry about. Hopefully I'll be back on here tomorrow saying everything went great! Good luck!